Now And Later

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

1 Corinthians 13:12

HAVE YOU EVER wished someone, just one person, could know and understand how you really feel about various issues in life?

Norm found such things difficult too. But one day he joined a grief group in his church, because he’d recently lost his wife. There he poured out his feelings, and many people identified with what he said. But the thing that helped him the most was prayer, drawing near to God. He said, “That’s when I knew someone knew everything inside of me. That really encouraged me.”

Many Christians find it hard to articulate their encouragement beyond the usual platitudes. But the trite remarks don’t always go to the depths of our thoughts and feelings. We are left still wanting to be fully known and understood.

In this world, it is impossible to be known and to know others to that degree. It can never happen in this world because there is too much sin and hatred and violence, which separate all of us. But did you know that one day in heaven we will know one another, God, and everything else with “perfect clarity”? In heaven we will be perfect, never thinking a sinful thought and having deep and powerful feelings we can communicate, as well as fuller knowledge of things that are eternal.

The promise here is that one day we won’t have to worry about faulty communication or a failure to communicate. No, we will know so perfectly that no mistake or false judgment will ever be possible again.